Watsy's Blog

Gardening and more

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:51:00 +0000

I've been even more busy than normal with work, family and hockey and more besides.

I'm still just about playing hockey each weekend, I have a groin problem though which is gradually getting worse each week - just about manageable on the Saturday then i cannot get out of bed or cough on Sunday until it gradually gets better through the week again. Still playing up front too - longest spell up front for several years.

On the Sunday's we've been doing family things - swimming and gardening and homework. Rebecca is taking swimming lessons in Burnham for a few more weeks, Jamie is reluctant to do lessons so for the first week I took him up to CSP on Sunday morning whilst Sarah took Rebecca. Met the Scotts up there which made for a pleasant 'swim' - though you can't stand around and chat as you are constantly making sure aforementioned children aren't drowning lol. Rebecca is doing very well with her swimming and Jamie can do about half a length under water - just need to get him to get his head out of the water and breath... Rebecca also has her first wobbly tooth - I've noted this so I can look it up in years to come!!

The garden is coming along nicely - I've turned over the whole of the veg patch and introduced my old raised bits and filled them with compost. I had a couple of little helpers for that as you can see. I just need to move the Greenhouse onto the knackered decking so that the diggers can come past for the building work later in the year (we got our planning permission a few weeks ago). Then once it is moved I can start off my seedlings.

Work is completely nuts at the moment, web design work coming out of my ears and cater for you is miles ahead of last year - so much so we are just about to get another warehouse double the size of the current one which we only moved into 15 months ago...

Quite a few other things happening, but days, weeks and months are just vanishing before me....

Very enjoyable weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:45:00 +0000

What a rather splendid weekend. Managed to polish off a load of work on Friday night, then had a lovely time with R & J on Saturday morning - we built some robots - which we'd been reading Harry and the Dinosaurs build - so that was rather pleasing. The 1's were short so I lumbered up to Wokingham - I don't think I've played there before as I didn't recognise it - a newly laid pitch apparently - very good it was too. We won 4-1 which was rather good - good fun chasing defenders down with Warren too - I was playing up front for the first time in about 18 months. Here's a glorious action photo of me probably missing the ball.

In the evening I did some more work then we went to Chalfont swimming pool for the first time. It was great - got there at 11, nice and empty the water was warm, the air was cold and they had loads of swimming play objects all round the pool - which R & J loved diving after - their swimming is coming along nicely at the moment.

Sunday afternoon after our Roast Chicken we had an afternoon clearing up the garden - a very large bonfire in the veg patch and cleared some chopped down shrub / small tree branches off the decking - ready to move the greenhouse on to it. I'm sure I've spent way too much time the last few years trying to sort the bloody greenhouse - I'm going to have to get a few mates round to help me move it onto there too and remove the existing water feature.

Christmas 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:29:00 +0000

We had a splendid Christmas with the Watts family Eastbourne popping up, all told 9 of us sitting round the dinner table for lunch. For the second year in a row we managed to deliver dinner to the table like clockwork - a stroke of genius by Sarah's preparations as usual.

It was a shame all of the snow had just about melted, but we did go for a walk on Boxing Day and there was some snow left in places and a small snowball fight broke out. We had to curtail the walk though as the area was pretty wet and some feet didn't have wellington boots!

Weekend away on the Isle of Wight

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:37:00 +0000

We had a great weekend away on the Isle of Wight near Yarmouth from Friday to Monday. The whole Birger family got together to celebrate Mrs B's birthday and everyone really enjoyed it. The whole weekend went off with a hitch - the cottage was absolutely brilliant fantastically equipped for the 11 of us, very spacious with a tennis court / astro pitch in the garden. There is also a summer heated swimming pool. It backed onto the River Yar and provided some spectacular frosty views for us. There is a jetty there too. We are probably going to book it for a summer holiday - I'll post a full portfolio of photos onto Facebook when I have time.

We went out for some lovely walks - one to Yarmouth for dinner at the George and the next day parked at The Needles and walked up Tennison Down and had a look at the monument there. Jamie sprinted most of the way there and back - Rebecca wasn't quite so happy - both of them didn't like the bitter cold. The views were quite spectacular as you can partially see in the photo below.

Came off the ferry to Lymington at 11 and got back home within a couple of hours. Just as well as the snow came down again and caused gridlock absolutely everywhere. I walked to get some milk and the snowstorm was beautiful - the road and everything else was completely white - picture postcard. Even today the journey in to work at Bourne End was quite spectacular with snow hanging on the trees frozen.

Nokia N86 - photos fault

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:24:00 +0000

My Nokia N86 is ok - I've had it a few months - since it was released in the Summer I think. However, it has developed an annoying fault in that the photos screen keeps coming up when you put the phone down - I assume that it thinks the shutter is open so the sensor is playing up. I wouldn't mind but despite it being 8MP the photos aren't much good unless it is a bright days outside. Indoor and slightly gloomy photos are hopeless - always blurred.

I bought the Nokia as I normally buy NOkia and didn't want to follow the crown with an Iphone - now I understand there is a reason why people are buying the Iphone - it is better...

I do use most of the functions on it though - Sat Nav, Email, Photos, as a phone!, MP3 player as it plugs into the car...

Birds - woodpeckers, redwings and chaffinches

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:20:00 +0000

I've been testing out my new camera lens again - as you'll see I haven't quite got it right yet - the woodpecker is slightly (!) out of focus. There were lots of birds on the grass feasting on something the other day - even a family of Redwings - I counted at least 3 which isn't bad considering the RSPB site has them as fairly rare. Anyway, here's a couple of out of focus photos from the feeding:

Walking Mylo

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:24:00 +0000

Cashman very kindly invited us over for Sunday lunch a couple of weeks ago - a beautiful peppered roast beef :-)

Rebecca though was most interested in giving Mylo attention and taking him for a walk - she absolutely loves dogs and seeing Mylo was great. We went for a lovely walk round leachcroft woods - though i was amazed by the burnt out cars here and there - and the motorbikes that were in an adjacent field that had obviously come up the footpass. Aside from that it is amazing how many green fields and how much beautiful countryside there is on our doorstep. Jamie loved running around, jumping and swinging on trees and things.

This weekend I'm joining up with Mike, Scott and hopefully Chris in Milton Keynes (!!) to celebrate Mike's 40th birthday. Visiting a nightclub and hopefully staying in a hotel up there - though I haven't booked yet like everyone else!! I remember at College there were about 4 or 5 people with birthdays on Dec 4th - Mike, Jim Wilson and I cannot remember the others...

Uploaded loads of photos on my Facebook page if you are interested.

Hockey, Music and Work

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:37:00 +0000

As usual I've been flat out with work and life in general. I seem to be constantly busy and pretty much knackered from it all the time. Take this weekend for example actually probably not a great example as I was chilling with Rebecca and Jamie at home on Sunday, but Friday night I was busy working until 12 or something stuffing envelopes and general computer work, then up to help Martin move - but I got there too late and didn't help at all - still did the shopping at the butchers. Then off to hockey where we should have anhiliated Phoenix and Ranelagh - we were up 4-0 in what seemed like 10 minutes but only won 5-3 in the end. Hot footed it from there to home, shower and on the train for the Girlschool / Damned / Motorhead gig. Cracking gig it was too but I was pleased i'd bought some ear plugs for the first time as I actually heard the music without my ears blowing up as per the last couple of gigs.

The gig was very good but I was disappointed with my ticket selection again - we were right at the back of the venue behind the seats standing up against a rail - must have been the last tickets available. Scott measured 110 decibels on his iphone - quite loud. Took the ear plugs out for the last song and the noise was extraordinary.

Been really busy at work - not helped by the fact our warehouseman contracted flu - rather badly too so we were in the warehouse for most of last week trying to keep up.

Just doing some work at the moment whilst ripping all my CD's to my hard drive and phone - the phone is rather annoying at the moment as it is crashing and keeps opening the photo gallery every time I put the phone down... Just added 211 Damned tracks that i've bought recently to my collection - got to laugh.

Rebecca and Jamie are super cool still. Jamie is pretty much able to ride his bike now without stablisers - which is quite impressive. Trouble is he's learnt it on the big bike where he cannot touch his feet on the floor as the small bike is broken (me trying to put stablisers on it - Rebecca's small one is broken too - chain keeps coming off both of them!).

We've also been out in the garden tidying up ready for Winter which has come along this week. Rebecca and Jamie helped me out in the garden with the leaves.

Music Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:59:00 +0000

I haven't posted for ages about what I'm listening to at the moment. Well to be honest, I'm getting pretty bored with music at the moment - all so rubbish - especially current music. However, I'm very conscious that that smacks of me getting old rather than the music getting worse - so i'm now not sure what to believe.

Anyway, I'm getting into the Damned at the moment, I've even booked tickets to see them at the end of November in hammersmith - they are supporting Motorhead. So my latest purchases have been :

Ramones - The Ramones
Grave Disorder - The Damned
Classic Christmas - Traditional arrangement (classical music)
I'm Alright Jack & The Beanstalk - The Damned
Stone Deaf Forever: The Definitive Motorhead Collection - Motörhead
Machine Gun Etiquette [25th Anniversary Edition] - The Damned
Strawberries - Deluxe Edition - The Damned
The Black Album - The Damned
Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies - Herbert von Karajan
Germ Free Adolescents - X-Ray Spex
Anything - The Damned
So Who's Paranoid? - The Damned
Phantasmagoria - The Damned
Damned Damned Damned - The Damned
Cut - The Slits

That should do for now....

Redwing

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:30:00 +0000

I've just bought a new camera lens for my Canon so I can take more photos of wildlife when I'm at home. I've been working at home today and this is a bird eating in next door's garden - not too bad given the distance. I'm not sure, but I think this is a redwing - click the title which takes you to the RSPB site. I also took photos of a blackbird and robin.

Annie and Wardy leaving

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:24:00 +0000

Annie and Wardy are off today, the Watts family wishes them all the best for their new exciting journey to Canada, though of course we will miss them dreadfully. They've been tremendously good friends for the last 15 years or so, Annie is even Rebecca's Godmother. We will be looking forward to some skiing in Canada soon though!!

To celebrate their off, they held a couple of events down at the Sports Club. The Saturday night at the club has to rate as one of the best nights I've attended at the club. So many people popped along to say farewell that I hadn't seen for ages, I didn't get round to see everyone but it was certainly an unforgettable evening - I am pleased I didn't go to Winkers though lol.

We've also been to Katy and George's wedding the weekend before. A lovely service in Old Amersham, I've not been to that church before and then on to Bisham Abbey for the daytime and evening. I didn't realise that the river ran the other side of the abbey, it was a stunning backdrop for their wedding photos and the day, just a shame it wasn't slightly warmer. Unfortunately as the day progressed I discovered I was the only one drinking red wine on the table and found myself drinking the bottles on the table.

The following day was the Windsor hockey tournament - I haven't been to that event for years, probably almost a decade! It was great to meet a few new faces at the tournament from our club and the mixed team that it still going as strong. It was the mixed team in the mid 90's where the old CSP gang brought the club back from extinction - Annie, Sarah and Catherine were a massive part of the vibrancy that came back to the club.

I've also played a couple of games for the 2's since my last post, I picked up a dead leg against Rover Oxford and could hardly walk for Annie's do and then cramp in my calf this Saturday which went whilst changing gear in the car and then felt like a pull - I was still hobbling around on Sunday, I think it is ok now though. The hockey this year is very good - the most I've enjoyed it in years - we are arranging for a baby sitter every weekend so we can both play. Wardy played last Saturday and was magnificent in his last game for the club (in a while - i'm sure we can get them both playing when they pop back in the country sometime).

Hockey and Eastbourne

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:18:00 +0000

The weekend was extremely busy non-stop. Friday night was spent doing my expenses and invoicing - incredibly early for me in the month... Saturday I played hockey for the 2's against Abingdon 1s. We won 1-0 but it was hard work - I was left half and then right half (much better) but I was working from D to D - very tired by the end of it. Very pleased to get the win though. Back home and in the bar for a few beers - and serving a few too!!

In the evening worked again for a few hours - mostly on my sister's web site I've just 'launched'. It is nowhere near finished yet, but it is good practice for Actinic V9 - my first launched site in V9. I waited for V8 to be stable but never seemed to get there and then they launched V9!! As I've been working with Actinic since V2 I know you have to wait a while before it is stable... In fact, I've been working in V9.04 all day today on another site and had a few crashes which has been rather annoying. Regular snapshot backups...anyway, I digress.

Anyway, so went down to see the Watts family on Sunday in Eastbourne. Good value as always, arrived nice and early played some games on the large lawn - though it was fairly chilly, nice roast lamb, then down to the beach to soak a few items of clothing. We had a look round the rock pools off the end of the normal beach but didn't really find much this time - the tide was right in pretty much.

Very busy week this week with work every night - and probably not playing hockey this weekend as Katie Shaw / Shanksy's weddding which should be a good knees up. Saying that I think I might be playing at the Windsor mixed hockey tournament on Sunday - last one (Wallingford) we cancelled so assume this one is still on...

Most Beautiful Countryside

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:40:00 +0000

We had Ash and Debs and co down last weekend for a quiet weekend. I managed to persuade Ash to pick up a hockey stick for the first time in a few years for a game with the 2's - he wasn't bad at all either considering. We then went down the club and then took the children for a walk by the river next to the clubhouse. I'm always stunned by how beautiful it is down there. We took a baguette of bread down with us (kindly donated by 2's captain davey) and fed some swans and cygnets - which was handy as we've been reading the ugly duckling recently.

Been flat out with work as usual but did manage to go up to training on Thursday which surprised myself. Not bad for the first hour.

Sort of launched my sister's new web site www.shole.co.uk with a few character sets on it - but the people I bought the stuff from have gone bust so I'm going down to Eastbourne on Sunday with R & J to photo some new products as well. Haven't quite got the extended information pages right yet - but it is my first live web site using Actinic V9 - a world away from V7. Just as they prepare to bring out V10 crikey.... I had to finish it fairly quickly though as I think the Google Toolbar must have sent back info on it to Google and we had some orders before I realised there was traffic on it whoops. It was nowhere near ready. I couldn't be bothered to put a robots.txt file to stop them looking round - my own fault I suppose.

Gardening and Other Horticulture

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:32:00 +0000

Having not posted on my blog much recently, I must apologise but I have been up to my eyes with web work and things. I'm almost starting to recover now from our holiday and catching up with a few things - well not quite so overloaded.

Minimal time has been spent in the garden this year - much of the work in late spring has had to carry through to now. The vegetable garden had mixed results:

- Rasberries / Strawberries - new section, went well but all fruit eaten by something, the strawberries are sending out runners so need to do something with them other than mow them
- Runner beans - worst ever year - probably not picked enough when we were away and has been too dry for them - and they caught rust again - despite the fact I changed all the poles and things
- Red Cabbages - grew really well but were just holes by the end of August with masses of caterpillars on it so pulled them out
- Potatoes - very good
- Onions - I think they've grown well but are now covered in weeds - whoops
- Peas - very good will be expanded
- Artichoke - good but waste of time takes too much room up
- Carrots - good again in their pots
Greenhouse
- Cucumbers - not very good at all for some reason
- Tomatoes - best year in ages - no blight this year so the cleaning worked - and the diligence of opening the greenhouse
- Peppers - best ever but still quite small peppers - only green ones

The lawn has been looking fabulous - but very brown now.

Anyway, I finally got round to pruning the fir trees in the back of the garden - cut down half in size - I didn't realise until I went in the shower that i'd shredded my arms and legs and were burning. Had to laugh - there will be quite a difference when I've finished - I couldn't do a few as didn't fancy balancing at the top of a ladder with the chainsaw.

Quick Catch Up

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:29:00 +0000

Crickey, I haven't posted a blog for absolutely ages. Since then we've:

Been to Wales / near Tenby on a lovely but wet holiday
Been to France / Britanny - beautiful wonderful holiday
Geoff and H.J.'s wedding
Lots of being with R & J
Loads and loads of work

That's about it - no seconds to breath and take stock of what is going on. My arthritis is rumbling a bit so am completely knackered so trying to make sure that doesn't become a full attack again.

Posted a few photos up on Facebook...

Weekend in Eastbourne

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:07:00 +0000

Sarah was galavanting round the gorges of the Breacon Beacons last weekend, so I took the opportunity to take flight down to Eastbourne and catch up with the family, once I had taken R & J to a couple of parties they were invited to.

We turned up after some long traffic jams on Saturday afternoon and we made some giant bubbles which was great fun. Their garden really is extraordinary, so much room and things in it. The selection of fruit and veg is astounding.

Sunday we popped down to Auntie Sarah's for a bar-b-q which was jolly good fun indeed and R & J throughly wore themselves out.

On Monday the Birger family turned up for more Rebecca present giving - her birthday lasted more than 8 days which is fairly impressive! Rebecca was over the moon to see her Uncle John. They stayed up rather late and for the first time in years I had to wake both of them up on Tues morning at 8.00.

Great stuff :-)

On Tour, Rebecca's Birthday Party, Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:09:00 +0000

I popped on tour last week to Wayfarers (Wimborne Dorset) and bumped into quite a few people from A & C HC. I went down with a team made up of players from Tring, Aylesbury, Old Georgonians and Canterbury. Mixed 7's and we didn't take any ladies - the team pride themselves on recruiting when they get there!! lol. Friday night was pretty hard going after a very time consuming drive down there but managed to push through (I think). I think the marquee dancing finished around 2am... Saturday was quite interesting playing hockey with a thumping headache (must have been the stress of driving) and then driving home in the early evening....

To prepare for Rebecca's birthday party on Sunday morning - or watch Sarah prepare for it anyway. We had a lovely morning down at the Sports Club for a Glitter Girls party. R is looking scarily older already...

The rest of the week has been spent working pretty hard and feeling rather knackered. I also have a new camera to take better photos at work too. I just thought I was getting on top of work when all of a sudden I'm avalanched again.

Not sure particularly what I've achieved, I launched a new art gallery for British Battles today - but still plenty of work to be done on it. I've also been messing around with Adwords, Google Base and a bit more. Hoping to launch a Furniture web site next week.

The garden is looking pretty good a the moment, though I think the badgers must be wandering off course as they are digging large holes in front of the kitchen each evening which i'm having to repair - a bit annoying. We now have tomatoes to eat and cucumbers about to be ready - runner beans are only about a week away too I think. Plenty of slugs around - they've eaten a lot of the peas unfortunately. Gutted.

Vista PC Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:32:00 +0000

As always I have a few grumbling problems with my Vista PC. However, they are getting slightly more annoying recently. For some reason, I currently have a Dreamweaver problem which means I have to delete a wincache data file each time I want to load it successfully.

The other problem is Outlook 2007 keeps wanting to corrupt itself. i have to keep rebuilding it with scanpst.exe. Currently each time I'm logging into my mail account it is deleting all the email of the mail servers. So on one email account alone it is downloading 450 emails each time it logs on every 15 minutes and I have to go through and clear them out again - multiply that across several email addresses it is getting a bit laborious. This Outlook problem was on top of the fact it was refusing to close a server connection and me have to start task manager each time and crash outlook so it would move on to the next email box. In fact, since starting this paragraph, the repair hasn't worked so my email is being rendered useless.

It also seems that doing upgrades to things like Safari, Skype etc entails wiping them off my machine and then doing a fresh install for it to work as Vista permissions doesn't let me do it otherwise.

My linux machine would be ok except I've forgotten the log in password so cannot currently get in. I have downloaded a page of linux instructions to overcome it - but its not top of my list....

Strawberry Fair

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:22:00 +0000

We went along to Rebecca's school today to watch her perform in a dance and singalong for a few minutes. The day is very well organised by the PTA and it just appears to be a giant social - so many people there that I know - and everyone else seems to know everyone.

Rebecca and Jamie had a great day to with Rebecca bumping into all her friends and playing with them. They were both pretty knackered by the time we got back home though - and after being fuelled by sweets and ice creams!!

Martin and Mel popped up in the morning as well which was very nice - when we got back home after the fete, Rebecca was very disappointed to see he wasn't there still!!

Happy Birthday to Martin for yesterday, quite a few people popped down to the White Hart and then the Lemon Grass to celebrate. I decided I would retry the Hari Murci - not actually that tasty - pretty spicey though.

New Slide

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:39:00 +0000

We've got a new addition to the garden - a slide. Rebecca and James are ever so pleased with it. A sand pit also came our way too :-)

The garden is coming along nicely at the moment. We are eating plenty of vegetables out of the garden. I cooked some artichokes for the first time last Friday - what a faff - especially as they take so much room up in the limited space I have to grow veg. We are also tucking into fresh peas, mange tout (Rodney), the odd French bean and some new potatoes. We have also picked our first couple of tomatoes from the greenhouse.

Been really busy working and things not been stopping for a second. Off to either hockey or the sports club AGM on Thursday evening - very important as going to be a bit of a shake up after the last couple of years worth of stealing that has been happening. Quite important that as many people as possible get down there...

I've organised a couple of Badgers games which have gone ok. I lost my match ball last Monday which has rather annoyed me. Some good youngsters coming through though which is very encouraging.

Going on tour to Wayfarers in a couple of weeks, though have to come back early for Rebecca's birthday party. Might also go on another one later in the summer - been invited to another three or four I think.

Work is mental as always. Recruited a new member of staff the other week - had over 200 C.V.'s for the job... terrible employment market out there at the moment.

Dad has had another operation on his throat to try and keep it open so he can eat and drink - so another distraction for us - in a lot of pain I think :-(

Anyway, I'll try not to leave it as long for the next post.

Pilch and Emma Get Married

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:32:00 +0000

We went to Pilch and Emma's wedding last Saturday. The service was in St Peter's Church in St Albans and then we retired to a Hunton Park Manor House just down the road (though we managed to go via Chesham due to a wrong turn on the A41 anyway I digress).

It was a beautiful wedding and the whole day was just fabulous. We met up with lots of people we hadn't seen for a while - Catherine flew back from Kaliningrad and everyone had an excellent time. Wardy and I particular enjoyed the lamb for the main course... They even managed to arrange a spectacular thunder and lightning hailstorm - fortunately we were already inside and had enjoyed the good weather for the photos and things.

Anyway, splendid day, splendid wedding, splendid company and even had a splendid breakfast on the Sunday morning. Only the first or second time Sarah and I have spent the night alone without the children since they were born.

Off to vote

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:06:00 +0000

We went to vote last night in the European and Bucks CC elections. I do believe strongly in voting as our democratic right - no matter who you vote for - people sacrificed their lives for us to vote. Jamie scootered there and Rebecca cycled really well there too. Once there, there was a steady stream of people going in and out of the polling booth - and had a quick chat with some old parish council colleagues whilst I was up there. I do miss not being on the local council funnily enough, but I just don't have enough time at the moment. When I was a councillor I was an independent - fortunately there aren't 'expenses' as such at parish council level - and the web site which I maintained I did it practically at cost.

However, when I was due for re-election, I was approached to stand for District and Bucks and funnily enough, part of the reasoning given to me was you could make a lot of money from expenses. This is now of course becoming even more pertinent with the current climate and strikes me this goes through the whole system down to grass roots level. I did tell a few people at the time but obviously it wasn't on the radar. I'm not massively bothered by the whole MP's expenses 'scandal' as such as it was a given that it was in lieu of pay rises, though some of them like the moat claims are just laughable - and in comparison to proper fraud by overseas politicians it is nothing. The thing that does bother me most and seems to have been largely buried is the Lords being bought of to change legislation. I'm absolutely astonished this hasn't been the major headline and they aren't being charged with something - absolutely outrageous.

On a lighter note, I played hockey again last night for the 1/2's in Eastcote - against South Bucks. I played at the back again and this time we won. I came off pretty knackered though - amazing how much running I was doing at centre back being guided by Shambles - he was very good in telling me where to move to. One of my strong points I normally think is my passing skills, however, at the back as you know you are last in line I was getting rather flustered and putting some terrible 'passes' in - shocking they were. Just need to crack the composure and it'll be fine. One of the Midfield shouted simple passes to me afterwards - it couldn't have been a simpler pass I just screwed it up!! South Bucks didn't use the new rules at all which was interesting - and we didn't much for the start of the game. We won 3-1 though.

Off to Pilch's stag do later today - with Clodder as his best man - down in Bournemouth - hope the rain isn't as bad as they are predicting...

Hockey, hot weekend and other things

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:38:00 +0000

We've had rather nice weather recently which has been rather good. It means it is full steam ahead in the garden - or wilt as the case may be...

Rebecca and James with Sarah's rather clever help replicated Catherine's ice cream shop again this weekend. A cardboard cut out so they could sell us ice creams.

On Sunday Warren and Zoe and family popped round which was very pleasant - a very hot day but we had roast chicken!! Managed to make the chicken last for three meals which was rather good. Boiled up the left overs in some rice on Monday and it tasted surprisingly good with a few additions such as a lemon and things.

I played hockey on Thursday in Eastcote against Eastcote - a 7pm push back and I played at sweeper - I had to run rather a lot which I wasn't banking on. We lost 5-0 too which probably doesn't say much about my defending skills - though I did rather enjoy it - and as odd as it sounds we mostly had posession in their half and Chris and I were left with 3 vs 2 or 4 vs 2 for most of the goals!! Also played a friendly at Newland park last night. I was wondering whether that would be the last ever game at Newland Park - the astro really is very thin up there compared with the playing surface at Eastcote. Playing again this Thurs I think.

Off to Pilch's stag do in Bournemouth this weekend - well I think so anyway - cannot leave until early evening. We seem to be booked up for just about every weekend for the coming months.

The garden is going pretty well - the first few tomatoes have appeared already in the greenhouse which is rather early. Work is flat out as normal.

Seaford Parade, Eastbourne Beach and Gardening Update!

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000

We as a family had a very relaxing and enjoyable bank holiday weekend. We popped down to Eastbourne on the Saturday morning first thing avoiding all the traffic and went down to the beach - where it was fairly overcast and not particularly warm.

As we were there the beach went down to low tide so were hunting round the rock pools to see if we could find any wildlife which was good fun.

Back at the house, we had taken the stablisers of Rebecca's bike and she managed to cycle across the whole lawn without falling off which was pretty impressive - more so given that grass isn't the easiest surface to learn on. Jamie was of course really wanting to do the same, but he is some way off yet - not least he cannot touch the floor yet - he can just about stretch to the peddles!

On Sunday we went down to Seaford on the bus from Friston for a village parade they were having. It was an absolutely glorious day down there, the highlight was of course the bus ride. The first photo is of them on a train ride at the fair which was at the end of the parade. It was so good we all were slightly burnt in various places - arms and backs.

The bus service really is good down there - it is every 10-15 minutes between Brighton and Eastbourne hardly any need to drive really and you get to see the beautiful scenery in between.

On Monday we spend the day in the garden in the sunshine which was really nice. I finished off planting all the greenhouse plants in to the garden and clearing more space in the veg patch. It is fair to say it is absolutely packed now. I have several vegetables I've not planted before including peas, onions, red cabbage, strawberries and parsnips.

Weekend - new warehouse neighbour

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Watts) — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:02:00 +0000

Had a fairly relaxing weekend as i've already posted - mostly gardening and working though. Working on a load of things at the moment which is weighing us down. We finally have an advert going out looking to recruit someone in the near future - so that should help us out.

In the warehouse where I work some of the time someone else has moved in next to us - and it is a toy distributor / importer. He was showing us some of the toys he has brought in today and I think I could be spending quite a bit of money - one of the toys was really simple a kind of marble tree - it started at the top and made a deeper noise as it went down - doesn't sound great from my description but was good for little ones.

The garden is doing well at the moment - i'm not sure where i'm going to put everything that we have in the greenhouse in the garden. I'm going to be cutting a bit more lawn up I think. Still have runner beans, sweetcorn, french beans, strawberries and red cabbages to find room for in my plot. Already sown are dwarf runner beans, peas, mange tout, spinach, onions, potatoes, carrots and parsnips. The photo shows some of the veg plot as well as R & J trying to fly the kite I bought (which isn't very good).

As if I wasn't busy enough already, I've also volunteered to help out with Badgers over the summer - as otherwise we'd have had to pull the team out.